It’s funny how—like the sudden and unexpected switching of a halogen light—some moments simply jolt you, harshly, into a new state of consciousness, a new awareness.

You wake from slumbered state—alert, focused, and well, ready to respond in a whole new way.

Like a deck of cards over-enthusiastically shuffled, everything of before, in whatever order, takes different form, with, perhaps surprising, new order and priority. This has been the case the past few days.

A crisp clarity—liken it to the unexpected step from fog into shafts of strong sunlight. An action spurred, urgent state, with crystal-clear focus, for perhaps the first time in a long while. The apparent worries of before, seemingly insurmountable, suddenly shrink back and fade to meaningless nonsense.

The mind and heart unprecedentedly unite in strong agreement, struck by a chord of new simplicity.

In this age of slow and reluctant awakening, many of us more openly discuss what it is to transition into a more knowing way of life. The stories which carried us there personally—experiences which will have likely rocked our worlds, even cracked our hearts wide open.

I realize more and more, as time passes, that this is purposeful. These are the jolts to wake us, and at that moment of our most extreme sensitivity and hypervigilance, to teach us our greatest, most hard-hitting lessons. They serve to lift us to a whole new level of understanding, consciousness, appreciation.

Never before have I witnessed such a wide-scale “jolt.” Never have I, in my own life journey, seen a halogen light hit so many of us, on such an incredibly collective scale. A rude awakening that hits us all like icy cold air, stopping us sharply in our tracks.

I am reminded of the incredible potential in the power of our mind, the strength of our spirit. We are challenged at a crossroad of fear-gripped choice.

How do we react? Respond? When everything we have known before seems suddenly to wither, to die unexpectedly, and we are left reeling in a new and strange world?

Our human spirit is naturally tested to its core.

But it’s so important that we remember now two innate human characteristics—one being resilience and the other, our amazing capability to reinvent.

Collectively, we are survivors. Furthermore, collectively, we are strong.

We are able to adapt as needed, chameleon-like, to our new world. It may take us a little time, but we identify new leaders, those of us who think creatively, respond calmly, and distance themselves from the surface-level chaos. Those who perhaps, quietly, all their lives, have been preparing subconsciously for moments exactly like these.

We finally acknowledge the value of community and those who, via whatever role, step out to serve others with little thought of their own safety—titles now forgotten. It is this army of people who become our warriors—our previously understated, undervalued step forward.

Our ancestors before us faced differing methods of battle, but always, at the point of crisis, turned to face their fear to look it straight in the eye. From them, we now learn.

Instead of being crippled by fear, we are gifted opportunity—opportunity to take stock, to reflect, to assess, to measure our place in this life, and strangely, through our profound loss, we discover the true value of what we have.

Human beings are so tempted to focus on shortcomings, and over recent generations, we have become self-centered, ego-absorbed, and, well, somewhat petulant. Like the spoiled arrogant child who has become self-consumed, without boundary or respect for others.

Not dissimilar to the journey when one experiences personal collapse or crisis in their own world, a new era is born. Only this time it is collectively—globally. Like childbirth, through our pain emerges a new beginning. A new perspective—only this time, opening with ultimate realization of gratitude, appreciation. Our ability to take things for granted simply stops.

The breakdown of our societal being is an apparently harsh requirement to stop us in abruptly in our tracks, to appreciate “the now,” our present moment.

The gift of simply being alive.

We strip back the physical and emotional clutter, we silent the incessant noise, and we block the constant distraction.

And we finally acknowledge that we are one.

The bittersweet irony in that physically we must separate, while collectively we unite.

It is indeed a hard lesson for all.

So, in this whirling chaos that surrounds us, our challenge is to find our calm. And we do this only by reaching deep within ourselves.

As our spirit feels caught in a vicious storm, with waves crashing ’round us, we reach for the rock within us and hold it, hold it tight, and we wait. We wait. For patience here is key.

We wait until the storm passes. The waves will eventually calm and return to their gentility, the grey ominous skies will return to a soothing blue.

And while we wait, we use this time to reflect. Reflect deeply because there in the turbulence of this disruption, we are gifted our strongest message, stirring phoenix-like from the segment of who we are at core.

We finally appreciate what matters most—and whom.

And the stunning simplicity of this cannot fail to lift us to a whole new level of consciousness, of understanding.